Wednesday 13th May

"If only the wind could make up it's mind"

A beautiful day greeted the 2nd course of the year plus a large list for the Wednesday club members with a few of the Thursday crew for good measure  ( they must have seen Thursdays forecast ).

All Club gliders were quickly brought out of the hangar and daily inspections completed whilst the launch point was set up (for the first time) in the North West corner of the field - with gliders soon being walked down, the first launch of the day was underway mid-morning.

As the morning progressed the windsock  seemed to have a mind of it's own and by late morning it was decided that the steady West aspect to the wind was sufficient to warrant a change of ends (for the first time).

With the launch point re-set up in the North East corner of the field flying was soon underway and both Club gliders and private gliders were steadily being launched into an evidently thermic sky.

And then the windsock decided to have some more fun at everyone's expense by gradually indicating an Easterly aspect to the wind so the decision was made to change ends (for the second time).

Launching downwind again

More flying then ensued with both course and club members making progress with their flying training and having fun trying to find the evident thermals.

And then, with the windsock steadily showing a return to the Westerly aspect of before, the decision was made to change ends again (for the third time).

Fortunately the windsock then became bored with it's fun at our expense and allowed the flying list for both course and club members to be completed before the hangar doors were closed for the day at just after 6pm.

Mike F solo again

During the day Mike F re-soloed in a K21 after not flown solo for some months and various private owners rigged and flew their gliders including Mark L (Cirrus 477), Joe (ASW19 877), Pete and Jill (Duo Discus OL), Paul L (SF27 H5), Pete St (Discus 230), Dave C (Pilatus B4 CVV) - Mike Sl & JSt

Pete St completed yet another 100kms round Tiverton and Crewkerne (230 knows the way) but then headed off for a tour of Exmoor. Pete & Jill followed the strangely configured streets and convergences round Tiverton, Taunton and Bampton. Thanks to Mike for filling in as Tug Pilot. 

In the evening course members and hangers-on enjoyed a very pleasant course dinner at the Keeper's Cottage (well we couldn't go on Argyle's Big night!)- J&P

Tuesday 12th May - Course Week

With a bright forecast, it was no surprise that the hangar doors were open and gliders being taken out before 9:00am. Daily inspections were completed on both K21s and a Junior whilst the launch point was set up in the North East corner of the field.

With the first flight of the day in the air around 10:00am, and after that it was, apart from lunch, non-stop flying for the rest of the day with good thermals in abundance albeit some very heavy sink in places, and a good strong westerly wind 20kts+ at flying heights.

Launch point (Mike Sl)

During the day various private gliders used spare cables from the Course to take advantage of the soaring available. The Supacat had another successful airing. - Mike Sl

Last street before the sea (Mike Sl)

With the strong wind  and low cloud base initially, it was difficult to cross the gaps. Pete St 230 managed to get to MUD on one of 3 abortive attempts to go West, Tom in DG1 and Pete & Jill in OL ventured not much past the motorway into wind. Adrian FDX had a ride back to North Hill in a Range Rover after landing at the bottom of the hill having got caught in the heavy sink.

 Adrians nice field

Slightly disappointing day as the wind was so much stronger than forecast. - J&P

Monday 11th May - Course Week

Day 1 of the May course began with everyone turning up as planned and on time so that was a good start to the week.

However the weather forecast suggested a delay to the flying for the day and that is how it turned out - with the Course Welcome completed and after much gazing out of the Clubhouse window it was clear that all the wishing in the world was not going to change the fact that it was unflyable for the moment. So it was straight into the briefing room for a lecture from Pete Sm on winch launches and eventualities.

By mid-morning, there was enough brightness in the sky to suggest that it would be flyable before lunch and the optimism provided to be well founded - both K21s were soon out of the hanger and inspected whilst the launch point was set up in the North East corner of the field. 

Getting set up to start as the cloud began to lift (Mike Sl)

With a number of flights before lunch successful in finding lift, it was almost a shame to be stopping for lunch but after food and drink had been consumed, it was back into the skies which had increasing  evidence of thermals 'here and there'.

Promising looking clouds (Mike Sl)

 When the lift was found it was plentiful, but no surprise that in-between the "sink rate" was high. Towards the end of the day the best thermals  appeared with a climb to 3400' achieved by Pete Sm and John A in a K21.

Still a few clouds left at the end of flying (Mike Sl)

With a slow start to the day's flying the course members and ground helpers continued on into the early evening to make the most of the conditions

By the time the hangar doors had shut at around 6:30pm all of the course members had had a good start to the week both in terms of flights and soaring. - Mike Sl

Sunday 10 May - SW ICL 2015 Upavon/Mendip

Sunday had a consistently poor forecast, us and the Mendip lads had a Mendip ridge plan B in our back pockets.

The scoring had been revisited in the morning and had revealed that Liam won the intermediate class due to penalty zones around the start line.


The brief scrubbed the ICL for the day due to a low cloud base and no sign of that changing. We de-rigged the Junior and sent it back to NH with Mike F.

Henry and Liam set off to Mendip to find a 300 ft cloud-base. Itching to fly, Liam and the Mendip crew emptied the hangar to get an Astir and Henry rigged his battered Cirrus.

The Mendip core group, having long since gone home (Same at most gliding clubs then), were not able to help, so with a skeleton crew (One wing runner), we winch launched, pulled off before entering cloud and dived for the ridge.

Henry and Liam both had just over an hour with the cloud-base rising to a whopping 800 ft when we landed.

Opportunity is always there, we must take it!

Saturday 9 May - SW ICL 2015 Upavon

The Friday before it all began; Liam was busy doing what a poor student does best... cooking pasta. Meanwhile, Henry was fettling the Junior to fix the radio and provide a PDA for tomorrow's big task.

After an early, wet start on Saturday, the only thing on our minds was the promised Upavon bacon baps!

Briefing was delayed until bacon was consumed, the weather was looking promising and we rigged the Junior (thanks to the small army of helpers getting the wings on).

Henry suffered a hole in his canopy from a trailer door in the wind and his luck didn't get much better, his novice flight was short lived and he wasn't able to start.

Liam, however, completed the task: "As I towed out to the launch point I was a little apprehensive with the howling 20 knot wind... so I decided to get an aero-tow to at-least save me the embarrassment of not getting away, I regretted that decision massively; at least a winch launch would have been over quickly, but instead I had 10 minutes of being dragged through hell.

After release, I turned straight into a nice 5 kt climb up to about 2700 ft QFE, by which point I was massively downwind of the start line and no where near cloud-base... so I checked the PDA and I had gone through the start sector and so decided to not waste time pushing back into wind, and instead kept going, a few km east of the airfield I contacted a 7 kt climb and got up to a base of about 3300 ft. I managed to fly along a street, straight down to the first turn-point, where I found another good climb and then began the next leg. This one was straight into wind for about 50 km. By the time I thermalled to the top over the turn-point, I had been blown about 5 km downwind. The push into wind in the Junior was hard, the streets weren't working consistently and it resulted in getting low as any thermal less than 4 kt resulted in me making negative distance around the task. After that leg I had to head north, which wasn't too much hassle with some good clouds around, but it began to deteriorate on the way home with a few very slow climbs, resulting in me being quite far off course. I managed to get on glide after a few scrappy thermals leading to a solid 7 kt core."

Liam landed back safely on a final glide which squeaked in nicely.

Michael was helpful in his crewing activities, he picked up tons to do with towing, rigging and understanding tasks.

All gliders safely down, we rigged our tent and ran back to the airfield.

Wyvern gliding club always put on an epic BBQ, their scorer was being anti-social and got all our scores sorted for Sunday morning's brief. Unfortunately, Liam had missed the 500 km wide start line by 2 m.

Novice: Upavon - Rivar Hill - Devizes - Avebury - Upavon (75 km)
Intermediate: Upavon - Hungerford - Calne - Wroughton - Upavon (99 km)
Pundit: Upavon - Hungerford - Melksham - Wroughton - Upavon (119 km)

Between the 5 clubs, there were 12 entrants of which 5 completed their tasks.

Saturday 9th May

The Met Office forecast predicted showers this morning.  John Pursey didn't.  A £33m computer vs a flourescent orange jacket wearing, coffee-powered cyclist/glider pilot.  Which was correct?  - JP obviously!  That had to go into print as his opinion was doubted in certain corners.  So despite some heavy clouds hanging over North Hill at 10am, the showers didn't materialise.  What eventually did materialise however, was the Pursey / Williamson combo.  Having their departure time delayed by Tim's porridge-making antics, meant not only had they arrived later than they considered optimum, but also they had an entire hour in a van together to whip themselves up into an unstoppable enthusiastic frenzy.  The result of this was that while everyone else hid in the clubhouse looking at clouds and waiting for the rain that never deigned to arrive, they had rigged H5 SF27 in possibly the shortest time yet in anticipation of 'epic skies'.  This was quickly followed by JP making his way to the launch point to hop up and down (metaphorically at least), waiting for a willing student.

Our author Tim with the Orange coffee machine-JP ( Tim P)

It was possibly the forecast that had the effect of limiting the list size (every cloud'n'all that . . excuse the pun).  This meant that even list amateurs were to find themselves flying sooner than they expected.  JP got stuck in as soon as everyone got brave enough to extract themselves from the clubhouse.  His first flight with Mia was around an hour.  Ridge lift and plenty of thermals meant staying in the air was not difficult.  The good conditions had the added bonus of making list progress extra efficient.  

Amongst the usual gliders on the launch point consisting of expert instructor/amateur pupil, could be found the expert instructor/expert instructor combination of Martin W and Stuart P.  Stuart did a good job of hiding the pleasure he must have gleaned from getting our shiny new CFI to do exactly what he said, as Martin underwent his 5 year checks.

Stu gives Martin 5 year check (Mark C)

 Anyone questioning the quality of the conditions soon had their doubts dispelled as Pete S rocked up at the launch point with Discus 230, launched and was shortly seen heading towards Tiverton under some 'hard to reach in a K21' clouds.  That's an excuse that could be used anyway.  He reappeared a considerable time later having completed 100km complaining of wind.

After Matthew Wi had finished flying H5, he handed the 'keys' over to James H.  The same James H that has previously insisted H5 is good for nothing more than a bonfire.  The same James H that insists he won't fly wooden gliders because he doesn't trust them.  Matthew Wi is nothing if not persuasive it seems.  James had a good soaring flight and if you listened hard enough afterwards there were possibly some compliments in some of his comments!  Photos are available for the doubters.

Rowan flew Libelle CLM and after getting simultaneously bored with hanging around the club / tempted by the clouds, also ventured towards Tiverton.  Finding himself 1000ft under final glide, with fields picked, he eventually recovered the situation to return the glider exactly an hour after setting off (as previously promised) to Chris H.  

Heather had both great news about Roly's progress and also a great flight with Lisa, acquiring her red card. 
 

Lisa and Heather (Mark C)

James F completed an aerotow in a K13 in order to practice some spinning and JP finally got to fly a glider himself as he gave work colleague Keith a flight in the DG505.  Keith was suitably impressed describing the experience as 'amazing'.  Matthew Wi did some further BI training with Mark C and James H and Nick H (complete with new hair cut'n'colour) went for a flight in the DG505.  

Paul briefs Heather's nephew (Mark C)

Thanks to Ruth and Gordon B for running the launch point, and to all the instructors and members for helping out.  Thanks also to Graham H for installing the new Gator security feature.  As well as secure the Gator, it also makes for a good puzzle, as Jonathan and Tim found out after convincing themselves that it simply couldn't work (luckily Graham was on hand to demonstrate it could!)

A very productive day at North Hill. - Tim P


ICL at Upavon
Meanwhile at Upavon, rumours (well Facebook actually) suggest that Liam completed a Task..... More news expected.

Thursday 7th May

With a Wednesday washout, Thursday was forecast to be reasonable and was very nearly over-subscribed. There was a lot of cloud to start with but plenty high enough, flying started before 10:00am. 

There was a mixture of launch failure practice, training and check flights before the soaring started. The cloud street to the south became within easy reach of the winch launch and Gordon B in K13 and the Juniors joined the two-seater training for 1 hour flights. A few private owners joined in -  Pete St in 230, Joe in 877, Paul M in HMS - but struggled to get away from the winch as the street spread out and died. Peter Stap had flown in from Newquay in his Cessna after his winter hibernation, and after some blue card checks with Mark, he took an aerotow in JZK  further south to the visible sea breeze front, and recorded the longest flight of the day 1:37. Mark put out a call - Any more aerotows to the lift? and 230 on his way down from the second winch pushed straight to the aerotow queue. Aston and Paul took the final launches before lunch and both soared over lunch.

 After a short break, there was some urgency to get the two-seater training through the long flying list, and the Junior pilots kindly gave priority on the cables to the two-seaters . A busy day with 59 launches in all and a lot of walking back up the field. Belated congratulations to Jonathan 877 for (very quietly) achieving his Silver height last Thursday. - J&P

Bank Holiday Monday 4th May

At the start of the day the weather was disappointing and not as good as forecast but a small but enthusiastic group of members were keen to fly. John Si and Simon L started the 2-seat flying. John P came to derig his glider having seen the bad weather forecast for Wednesday and initially thought it was not worth taking a launch. Eric decided he had faith in the Met Office forecast and rigged the ASG29. Half an hour later patches of blue sky appeared and Rowan rigged this Libelle, Henry his Cirrus, Matt the SF 27, James the ASW 20 and John Pursey delayed derigging and took a launch. There were some extended flights from winch launches but Eric and James took aerotows and found wave to the west of the site climbing to 3700ft QFE. Flying was brought to a premature end when the rain came in the early afternoon.  - Eric

Pictures from James ENW

Sunday 3rd May

Today was a day for the persistent (or just plain stubborn?) few to gain their reward.

The morning orographic cloud taunted us as it rose and fell above the airfield, and our hopes for flying rose and fell with it.  Around mid-morning the sun came out, so we busied ourselves readying the vehicles and DI-ing a K21 and a Junior.  Our preparations were complete just in time to push the gliders back into the hangar for protection from the first of many passing showers.

The showers persisted for a few hours, but we were all glad of the opportunity to catch up with Roly and Heather, who popped in to the clubhouse for lunch.  Everyone commented how well Roly looked following his visit to the RD&E.

After lunch the showers held off to the west of North Hill, allowing us to start flying shortly after 2pm.  With a somewhat damp field and low number of members present, duty instructor JB declared an aerotow-only session.  Duty tuggie Simon J's face lit up!

Mia launched first with JB, and came back with a big grin after what was her first training aerotow.  Meanwhile Gordon H took the Junior for the longest flight (29 minutes), soaring the lift in front of the showers as well as the west ridge.  He selflessly brought the glider back so that Rick could have a go.  Richard H was put through his paces and got his solo aerotow pass re-validated.  Ruth had a couple of attempts with JB trying to teach her how to work the front of the showers but, just as she was beginning to get the hang of it, a particularly menacing shower chased them back to the airfield for close of play.

Thanks to JB and Simon for getting us all in the air, and to DLM David C for keeping us in order and managing the launch point.

In the evening, Henry and Mike F were fettling the Junior trailer ready for next weekend's trip to Upavon for the Inter-Club League.  Hopefully the trailer will soon be shiny enough complement Mike's brand new tow-car! - Ruth

Saturday 2nd May

Poor weather for flying today, but there was a good group of members doing field maintenance work on the churned up entrance gate area, thanks to everyone for getting a little wet and muddy.

Ian has made good progress with the CCY inspection and annual, no serious defects have been found and reassembly is now taking place. - J&P

ASK13 CCY fin post removed for inspection (Ian M)